Question about vocab for an 800 verbal

[lifelonglearning]

Hello

I had a question I was hoping someone might be able to answer. Does anyone know what vocab for an 800 verbal score looks like?

I heard Barron's 3500 but it looked light. I'm less than 200 away from finishing it at the moment but recently found a 10,000+ amalgamation of a number of popular ones (over 1600 A words - pretty cool) but I'm predicting 100 hours(ish) to get all the words down (which is on top of other prep and studies) and would really prefer to deploy my time elsewhere. I know the 10,000+ one is overkill but was wondering if anyone knew of a happy medium?

I'm 20 weeks out from my projected GRE test date, started studying a month ago for three hours a day which I plan on keeping up until test day, and have scored over 700 verbal on the two CATs I took. I had a decade long break between high school and university and am just finishing up my BA and am hoping to transition straight into grad school at Columbia.

I'm aiming for an 800 verbal (haha, I know lots of people probably say this) and am wondering what that would look like vocabulary wise.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[JustChill]

My experience has been that at that level it becomes less about advanced vocab and more about complicated reading passages. I mean this both in terms of content as well as length and the time it takes to work through it.

[lifelonglearning]

My experience has been that at that level it becomes less about advanced vocab and more about complicated reading passages. I mean this both in terms of content as well as length and the time it takes to work through it.

Interesting. Thank you very much

[UnlikelyGrad]

I got a 790 and I probably knew only half of the words in the Barron's book. So I think that JustChill is probably right.

[LockeOak]

Keep in mind the differences in percentile vs. score between the verbal and quantitative sections. In my case a 700 in verbal was still in the 96th percentile, while a 700 in the quantitative would be much lower. Therefore, unless you're applying for a literature program, there may be better uses for your time than memorizing that much vocabulary.

Edited July 16, 2010 by LockeOak

[DrFaustus666]

Hello

I had a question I was hoping someone might be able to answer. Does anyone know what vocab for an 800 verbal score looks like?

I heard Barron's 3500 but it looked light. I'm less than 200 away from finishing it at the moment but recently found a 10,000+ amalgamation of a number of popular ones (over 1600 A words - pretty cool) but I'm predicting 100 hours(ish) to get all the words down (which is on top of other prep and studies) and would really prefer to deploy my time elsewhere. I know the 10,000+ one is overkill but was wondering if anyone knew of a happy medium?

I'm 20 weeks out from my projected GRE test date, started studying a month ago for three hours a day which I plan on keeping up until test day, and have scored over 700 verbal on the two CATs I took. I had a decade long break between high school and university and am just finishing up my BA and am hoping to transition straight into grad school at Columbia.

I'm aiming for an 800 verbal (haha, I know lots of people probably say this) and am wondering what that would look like vocabulary wise.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

I like your ideas, both about eradicating poverty and about lifelong learning. But unless you're going after a fellowship in English at one of the Ivies, low 700s or higher in Verbal will get you in just about anywhere, if postings on this site, as well as info from top universities' own websites, are accurate.

Also, scores can vary. I took the GRE twice, got an 800-V (99.8th percentile) the first time and a 760-V (99.1st percentile) the second time. (I was, and still am, desparately trying to break the 700-barrier in Quant, which is SAID to be a much easier thing to do---well folks, for me it ain't.)

Anyway, a friend who's a PhD in stats assured me that from a statistical perspective, and in all likelihood, from the vast majority of admission committees' perspective, there's utterly no difference between my two verbal scores.

This long-winded post is meant to say: you're doing fine -- again, unless you're trying for a top fellowship and intend to become Poet Laureate after graduation.

[lifelonglearning]

Thank you all so much for your replies. Very good to know. I thought the 800 would help with funding. I don't actually know anyone else who is taking the GRE (I'm in Canada and about a decade older than most of my undergrad peers) and assumed it would help lock down a spot at Columbia in 1) a PHD in Sustainable Development (they let in six people per year) or 2) a joint MIA/MBA or 3) a joint MPP/MBA at Harvard.

In other words, you're thoughts are greatly appreciated. By the way, congrats on the great verbal scores.

[scyrus]

I learned most the Barron's words list as well, and on all my practice tests I scored consistently in the 720-740 range. Unfortunately, on test day, I had to guess the antonym to the word Plangent (which I couldn't even vaguely recognize as being part of the English language) on my second question. I ended up getting a 680, probably at least partially due to that question . Moral of the story, I think: don't get too caught up on the word lists, there will likely be a word or two you don't know regardless. Improve your vocab, certainly, but focus on time management and strategies for answering questions with unfamiliar words. I think that will be your key to the 800V (if you really even need it, that is. I think a 7x0 score would be sufficient for just about anywhere).

[yatto]

Hello! I got 800 on the Verbal section, after studying for three weeks. In terms of word lists, I studied Barron's (but by no means remembered it all perfectly), and Princeton's "Hit List" (they also have an especially useful list of alternate meanings of common words). But by far, by FAR the most important thing to do to study for Verbal is to work through ALL of the "GRE Big Book" verbal tests (there are 28 of them, with 38 questions each). Going through all those, writing down and learning the words you don't know, and making perfectly sure why you got the questions wrong that you did is the best possible preparation for this test—not only are you getting the vocab, you're getting it in exactly the ways you'll be seeing it on the actual test.

[milestones13]

I learned most the Barron's words list as well, and on all my practice tests I scored consistently in the 720-740 range. Unfortunately, on test day, I had to guess the antonym to the word Plangent (which I couldn't even vaguely recognize as being part of the English language) on my second question. I ended up getting a 680, probably at least partially due to that question . Moral of the story, I think: don't get too caught up on the word lists, there will likely be a word or two you don't know regardless. Improve your vocab, certainly, but focus on time management and strategies for answering questions with unfamiliar words. I think that will be your key to the 800V (if you really even need it, that is. I think a 7x0 score would be sufficient for just about anywhere).

That really is just rough luck to get such a difficult antonym (plangent) on your 2nd problem. I am familiar with the word meaning plaintive or sad, but not the meaning of "loud, reverberating sound." Both definitions are somewhat obscure -- especially for the *&$#ing 2nd question of the GRE! There is no doubt you would have scored in the 720-740 range if that were question number 10 instead of number 2. So, catty of the CAT to throw that at you when you should be dealing with voluble or mollify or something. You can check what other problems you got wrong by way of the diagnostic service (for free) as I'm sure you've already done...680 is still an excellent score, though, no matter what program you're applying to...so there's no need to despair...still I feel confident you would score over 700 on a retake (if the verbal score was exceptionally meaningful for you to want to retake).

I would take the word lists very seriously. Because antonyms and analogies come first, I think it's good idea to really be strong on the vocabulary because the shift in score is so huge early on. You're shut out of a 700 plus score if you miss any in the first 5 -- unless one can dust themselves off and ace the rest of the test (or get one or two wrong). For example, you scored a 680, but to do that, you probably had to really kick arse on the rest of the test.

I have played around with the power prep and missed the first question on purpose, and then only got 2 wrong after that. My score was a 710. 3 wrong is usually 770-780 if these are RC's missed later in the test. So, huge swings in score are very much predicated on one missed antonym, analogy or sentence completion early on. This is obviously true for the quant as well...but you can get more wrong on the quant (5 is about the max on the quant) to get a perfect 800. Anyway, a plaintive tale...I hope I won't see such odd ducks when I take the test next week.

Edited July 29, 2010 by milestones13

[DrFaustus666]

That really is just rough luck to get such a difficult antonym (plangent) on your 2nd problem. I am familiar with the word meaning plaintive or sad, but not the meaning of "loud, reverberating sound." Both definitions are somewhat obscure -- especially for the *&$#ing 2nd question of the GRE! There is no doubt you would have scored in the 720-740 range if that were question number 10 instead of number 2. So, catty of the CAT to throw that at you when you should be dealing with voluble or mollify or something. You can check what other problems you got wrong by way of the diagnostic service (for free) as I'm sure you've already done...680 is still an excellent score, though, no matter what program you're applying to...so there's no need to despair...still I feel confident you would score over 700 on a retake (if the verbal score was exceptionally meaningful for you to want to retake).

I would take the word lists very seriously. Because antonyms and analogies come first, I think it's good idea to really be strong on the vocabulary because the shift in score is so huge early on. You're shut out of a 700 plus score if you miss any in the first 5 -- unless one can dust themselves off and ace the rest of the test (or get one or two wrong). For example, you scored a 680, but to do that, you probably had to really kick arse on the rest of the test.

I have played around with the power prep and missed the first question on purpose, and then only got 2 wrong after that. My score was a 710. 3 wrong is usually 770-780 if these are RC's missed later in the test. So, huge swings in score are very much predicated on one missed antonym, analogy or sentence completion early on. This is obviously true for the quant as well...but you can get more wrong on the quant (5 is about the max on the quant) to get a perfect 800. Anyway, a plaintive tale...I hope I won't see such odd ducks when I take the test next week.

Just for grins I tried Powerprep today and got "quotidian" on the 2nd word ....

And guess what, though I knew its first meaning "daily" ... I didn't know its second meaning, "humdrum, mundane, routine" ... and got the antonym wrong.

It happens guys. It stinks, but it happens.

John

[milestones13]

Just for grins I tried Powerprep today and got "quotidian" on the 2nd word ....And guess what, though I knew its first meaning "daily" ... I didn't know its second meaning, "humdrum, mundane, routine" ... and got the antonym wrong

Both definitions of quotidian I'm familiar with but the second meaning I picked up far more recently than the first. Remembering words used by writers in interesting ways can help...for the 2ndary use of quotidian I remember Gore Vidal, in an essay on John Updike, referred to him as a "quotidian novelist" this, a slight on Updike's supposed lack of interest in political issues. Before this I was not aware of quotidian meaning commonplace. When I first read it, I thought, does this mean that he''s saying he's a novelist who writes every day? It didn't make sense. Then, I looked it up in the dictionary and all was clarified. There is a clear link between the meanings, but it helps a lot if you can distinguish the dictionary definitions with a certain degree of precision rather than play word detective while under time pressure. This is very tough to do though, given the plethora -- or shall I say plenitude? -- of words in the ETS database.

Edited July 30, 2010 by milestones13

[lifetimestudent]

Just for grins I tried Powerprep today and got "quotidian" on the 2nd word ....

And guess what, though I knew its first meaning "daily" ... I didn't know its second meaning, "humdrum, mundane, routine" ... and got the antonym wrong.

This exemplifies the entire GRE process. On the one hand you need to know a TON of words--but in the end it's not just knowing one definition, but having a well-rounded understanding of the complexities and nuances of word meaning. I had a lot of success using paper flash cards. Now I actually wrote my own iphone app for flash card studying. Though that was spurred mostly by the need to learn foreign languages I also would have used it if it were available at the time to study for my GREs. But the key, no matter your method for learning and memorizing vocab, is just to read a lot and write down the words that you don't know. And then do it some more. Really GRE studying less than 6 months before the exam is the equivalent of cramming--the real studying happens at the beginning of freshman year of undergrad.

[DrFaustus666]

This exemplifies the entire GRE process. On the one hand you need to know a TON of words--but in the end it's not just knowing one definition, but having a well-rounded understanding of the complexities and nuances of word meaning. I had a lot of success using paper flash cards. Now I actually wrote my own iphone app for flash card studying. Though that was spurred mostly by the need to learn foreign languages I also would have used it if it were available at the time to study for my GREs. But the key, no matter your method for learning and memorizing vocab, is just to read a lot and write down the words that you don't know. And then do it some more. Really GRE studying less than 6 months before the exam is the equivalent of cramming--the real studying happens at the beginning of freshman year of undergrad.

I agree but I think it actually begins even earlier than that, like, uh, high school: For example, I remember learning the word "sycophant" (together with its synonyms and near-synonyms "lackey," "yes-man," "toady," "minion" etc.), which is on every GRE word list, in high school, 10th grade English to be exact. We had a teacher who really emphasized vocabulary. I hated every minute of it, but as it turns out, it wasn't a waste of time after all.